This invention, a combination handwarmer muff and fanny pack enables the user to carry the equipment and supplies needed for cold weather outdoor activities, such as hunting, skiing, ice fishing, spectator sports, etc., and provides an insulated handwarmer muff for the warmth and protection of the hands in those instances where gloves or mittens would not allow sufficient dexterity, and where frequently having to remove them would be inconvenient or uncomfortable. Both handwarmer muff and fanny pack can also be used separately, and the muff when opened flat, also serves as a seat cushion.
Muffs for warming the hands have been seen for many years, and several combinations of muffs with other devices have been used. The early devices disclosed in the above identified U.S. Pat. Nos. 255,420, and 369,817, are a muff combined with a lunch recepticle, and a muff-pocketbook combination, respectively. Both have the following disadvantages in common: they can be utilized only in one position on the wearer's body, the recepticles in both are a permanent part of the muff not able to be utilized independently of it, are rigid and nonconforming to the body of the wearer and to the contents of the device, are severely limited in their carrying capacity, and are not intended to allow a heat source to be used in conjunction with the muff. A more recent muff, U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,896, identified above, is simply a muff having straps by which it is secured to the front of the wearer's body, and laces by which the size of openings for the hands may be adjusted. There is no provision for carrying a heat source or anything else. U.S. Pat. No. 2,727,241, identified above, is a muff with a pocket for a heat source or handwarmer. It can be used only suspended from the wearer's neck, and has no provision for carrying anything other than a handwarmer. U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,634, differs from the previous muff only in that it offers the hands direct access to the heat source, and that it may be carried over one shoulder. It is designed to carry a small hand-warmer, and nothing else. U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,355, is also a muff with a recepticle for a handwarmer and a device for adjusting the openings for the hands, differing from the foregoing only in that it is worn around the waist on the front of the wearer's body.
The present invention eliminates the disadvantages of the previous designs by providing a means for carrying a muff with handwarmer, and a significant quantity of additional items while permitting both muff and pack to be used independently or in combination, by allowing the muff to be worn separately around the waist or suspended from the neck or in combination with the fanny pack, and by having the ability to conform to the wearer's body and the contents of the pack, thus providing a greater degree of comfort and security to the wearer.
The invention incorporates an insulated muff and a pack, commonly called a fanny pack, because it is worn around the waist in the rear of the wearer. The handwarmer pack combines the function of a pack for carrying equipment and supplies, and a muff which is accessible by turning the fanny pack to the front of the wearer's body. This muff, contained in a special pocket on the outside front of the pack, is removable, allowing the pocket which has snaps for closing the ends to be used to hold other items, and the muff to be used independently either by threading a waist belt through loops on the muff or tying them to a cord around the wearer's neck. The muff itself has a pocket in which a fuel or chemical type handwarmer can be held inside the muff to augment the wearer's body heat. Additionally, the muff, roughly a cylinder, can be opened flat for use as a seat cushion.
The handwarmer pack is a water repellent fabric fanny pack with a flap closure at the top secured by a zipper. A web belt, stitched into the seams at the top of both ends of the pack to which is attached on both loose ends a two piece, adjustable, side release buckle, secures the pack around the waist. A pocket of the same material as the pack, which snaps on both ends for closing it when the muff is not being used, stitched to the front of the pack, contains a muff constructed as follows: A piece of foam insulation is covered on the outside with the same fabric as the pack, and on the inside with a soft flannel cloth to which a pocket of the same flannel has been stitched on three sides, 21/2 inches from one edge, and 31/2 inches from the edges perpendicular to it. Three snaps, the male component 1/4 inch from the edge below the pocket, six inches apart; the female component 1/4 inch from the opposite edge, six inches apart, are attached. One loop of the same material as the cover is stitched to each of the other two edges at the midpoint.